AARHUS CONVENTION

Working Group on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers

Background
At the first meeting of the Signatories, a Task Force on pollution inventories or registers was established with the Czech Republic as a lead country to facilitate the implementation of Article 5, paragraph 9, of the Aarhus Convention. The mandate of the Task Force was to prepare recommendations for the future work on PRTR to be presented to the Signatories or Parties in accordance with Article 10, paragraph 2 (i). At the second meeting of the Signatories, the Task Force presented its findings in the report of its first meeting. Based on these, the meeting of the Signatories decided to propose to the Committee on Environmental Policy that an open-ended intergovernmental working group should be established, charged with the preparation of a legally binding instrument with a view to having a draft ready for the Fifth "Environment for Europe" Ministerial Conference (Kiev 2003). At its seventh session, the Committee on Environmental Policy decided to establish the Working Group on pollutant release and transfer registers here. 

At the first meeting of the Parties, which took place in Lucca, Italy on 21-23 October 2002, the ownership of the Working Group was formally taken over by the Meeting of the Parties to the Aarhus Convention by adopting decision I/2. By the same decision, the Parties decided that the legally binding instrument should be a protocol to the Covnetion and that the Protocol should be open to all States, whether or not Parties to the Convention. Finally, the Parties decided to hold an extra-ordinary meeting at the occasion of the fifth Ministerial "Environment for Europe" Confence (Kiev, May, 2003) to adopt and sign the Protocol (decision I/3).

Progress
The negotiations on the PRTR protocol under which companies will be required to publicly disclose information on their output of pollutants came to a successful conclusion in Geneva on 30 January 2003. Although regulating information on pollution, rather than pollution directly, the protocol is expected to exert a significant downward pressure on levels of pollution, as no company will want to be identified as among the biggest polluters. The Protocol was adopted and opened for signature at the Fifth Ministerial ‘Environment for Europe’ Conference, which took place in Kiev, Ukraine, 21-23 May 2003. Thirty-six States and the European Community signed the Protocol in Kiev.

Press releases

Documents

Draft protocol on pollutant release and transfer registers (MP.PP/2003/1)		pdf	pdf	pdf
Report of the second meeting (MP.PP/AC.1/2002/2) - not yet available
List of participants at the second meeting		pdf
Elements for a draft resolution on pollutant release and transfer registers (MP.PP/AC.1/2003/3)		pdf	pdf	pdf
Draft Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers - Revised consolidated text (MP.PP/AC.1/2002/3)		pdf	pdf	pdf
Provisional agenda for the second meeting (MP.PP/AC.1/2003/1)		pdf	pdf	pdf
Report of the first meeting (MP.PP/AC.1/2002/2)		pdf	pdf	pdf
List of participants at the first meeting		pdf
Provisional agenda for the meeting (MP.PP/AC.1/2002/1)		pdf	pdf	pdf

Documents of the previous Working Group

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